Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Good morning! Today's post features a birthday card for my oldest daughter Sarah. She turns 21 on Sunday.

Isn't she a beautiful young lady? So let me tell you a little bit about Sarah. Sarah is the sweetest person you'll ever meet, but she's also stubborn as a mule! Typically you don't think of those two characteristics going together, but if you ever met Sarah, you'd agree. She is very compassionate and has a strong faith and love for God. She loves to help the destitute and on Saturday mornings she goes into the city and serves coffee and snacks to the homeless as part of a group that minister to them. She also sponsors a child in a third world country and her major at her christian liberal arts college is a combination of english and non-profit management. She spent her spring break in North Dakota preparing a summer camp that a christian organization young life will run for the native american children Her hope is that she can make a living helping people. She loves to read and write and she also loves the outdoors - hiking, kayaking....She's also a coffee addict and snob. Don't offer her any dunkin donuts - even Starbucks is a little beneath her! As for the man she is hugging, that is Jonathon - her on again - off again boyfriend for 3+ years. They are currently broken up, but he is coming over for dinner for her birthday. He's a great guy, and they remain friends. I'll be glad to see him again.

When I saw this cute amuse stamp this weekend (yup - another road trip to Ink about it) I knew I had to get it for Sarah. A women shopping at the store convinced me to get this sentiment and I'm glad I did. The two go well together and they are perfect for Sarah's birthday card.

The paper is from Basic Gray. This is my first venture with this line and I'm becoming a huge fan. The card base is retired SU River Rock with some Old Olive DSP as a mat. The ribbon is old olive, then dusty durango and then pretty in pink. I've never layered on three ribbons, but I love the color combination and thought it worked. The book/coffee image was stamped twice on PTI white and colored in with copics. One image was cut out so it could be glued on top as a layer. I had to use a dimensional to hold the book image up just on the top - otherwise it would have been tilting, so 1/2 of the image had a dimensional and the other half had a glue dot. The steam from the coffee is enhanced with a clear embossing. The white at the bottom was done with a punch. I think that and the little glass beads add just the right element of sparkle to an otherwise toned down card.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Don't you just love making baby cards? I think they are my favorite cards to make. It's just such a fun occasion to celebrate and there is so much versatility in the card making. You can go cute and whimsical or classic - depending up on the family. This cutie pie card is for a sweet young women in my Tuesday night bible study - Janice. She had Austin a few weeks ago and while the birth was fine and Austin is great, she wound up back in the hospital last week with some high blood pressure and heart issues. She was quite sick, but is doing well now.

As for the card, I got this idea of the circle cut-out and then embellished it a little. I think this Amuse set is super cute and easy to work with.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Not far from my house is a wonderful farm stand called Foppema Farms. They grow many of their own fruits and vegetables and they get other local produce (like apples) from other farms. Strawberries don't come into season here until June, but they allow us to pick our own and they are the best. Doesn't this strawberry stamp make you long for summer fruit? My local grocery is starting to have imported strawberries. They are pretty good, but don't compare to fresh sun ripened local berries. I can't wait till June to make some strawberry/rhubarb pies. My 16 year old son can eat half a pie in one sitting. Oh to have his metabolism!! Card Recipe:Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red, Bella Rose DSPStamp: Strawberries by LockhartAccessories: Corner punch, pearl accents, scallop punch, clear embossing (on the strawberries), real red satin ribbon.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Are you glad it's almost the weekend? I know I am. I'm looking forward to getting some sleep. Our silly dogs were being a little nutty last night. Both my dh Bob and my son Eric were out till 10:00pm last night, so when they got home, the dogs weren't ready for bed. Remind you of toddlers? They do to me! Anyway, when I put them in their crates for bed, Joey (old dog) starting whining. I ignore it, but my son gets up and let's him out of his crate - and the young one too. So, the whining stops, but then at 3:45am, bark, bark, bark, bark. Something must have happened outside (a leaf blowing by, a critter in the yard or maybe a car driving by.) When they are in their crates, they ignore the outside activities, but when they can sit/sleep by the window, everything wakes them up. So, of course, I get up, and put them in their crates again, but now I can't fall back asleep. In typical fashion, I finally fall back asleep only to be soon awakened by the alarm. Tonight, they are both in their crates and Eric has firm instructions to NOT LET THEM OUT. He, of course, slept through the middle of the night barking!

So on to the card. Do you like it? I love the warm yellows with the gray. I also love this sentiment from Amuse. The stamp set is stampin up hostess set. I don't know the name but it's a good one. Karen brought me these stamped images and I mixed them up with some papertrey ink summer sun. Isn't it a nice bold and bright yellow? I love the PTI polytwill ribbon also. The card is made from the white natural paper (SU) so it feels very rustic and appropriate. This may work well for Easter or another general occasion. Well, let's hope we all get some sleep tonight. Thanks for visiting!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Good morning everyone. Do you ever really enjoy a monday morning? Today I did. Call me crazy, but sometimes it's nice to start a fresh new week when you've had an enjoyable and productive weekend. This weekend our weather was unseasonably warm. I was able to get one of our area rugs outside and thoroughly clean it. I also cleaned most of the windows in the main floor and did a top to bottom dusting and vacuuming. In addition, my dear husband was out raking and edging so the garden beds are ready for the buds to come up.

This morning it was so satisfying to drink my cup of coffee and not see dirty windows or piles of dust showing up. Then when I took the dogs for a walk, I saw neat garden beds along the driveway. Yeah. That is a good monday morning. Plus all the laundry is caught up AND there is food in the pantry/fridge! How blessed we are.

Anyway, on to today's card post. This was the sweet sunday sketch challenge from Karen. I decided to do a square version of this and I was inspired to do the gardening theme with this cute Lockhart stamp. I just found out from facebook that an old friend of mine has a birthday coming up. I'll probably add a nice birthday sentiment to the inside and (hopefully) get this in the mail to her this week! Thanks for looking. Leave a note if you have time!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

When I saw the Saturday Sketch Challenge and noticed it was a rectangular layering technique I was very happy. You see, yesterday, I was at Joanne fabrics buying supplies for my son's DNA project and what did I find there, but Spellbinders NESTABILITIES! I have never seen those at any of the big craft stores before. Of course I had my 40% coupon with me, so I was so excited to get my first set. They didn't have a huge selection, but since I have no nestabilities, I was very happy to start with the basics. It was really easy to use with my cuttlebug. I had read some on-line tutorials, but the instructions that came with the set were very straightforward.

So, then the only challenge was what stamp image to use. Since Easter is coming up, I thought I would use this borrowed set that really focuses on the christian Easter message. What a very cool concept that we have a living God that loves us - Jesus!

I don't have a lot of spring DSP's, but still love, love, love this retired DSP from stampin up with Baja Breeze, Kraft and Chocolate chip so I picked the blue/kraft color scheme and went to work. Thanks for looking! Leave a note if you can!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

We have a beautiful spring day here in New England. For the first time in a long time, we have the windows open in the house and my husband and I got out and started clearing some of the garden beds out. It's nice to see the bulbs starting to come up.

Today's post is a pure copy cat project. I saw Debbie's beautiful daisy card using the Lockhart stamp and thought I would use that layout for a birthday card my son will need next week. One of his friends (Emma) is having a fancy sweet 16 party. It is semi-formal and Eric needed to get some new dress pants (and a tie) to wear for the big event next week. Her invitations were bright pink and white so I decided to stay in that color scheme for her card. In typical fashion, my son won't buy a gift - too personal for a friend that is a girl, but is not his girlfriend, so this card will get a Dunkin Donuts gift card added to it. It's better than his idea of a $20.00 bill! Anyway, back to the card. I had fun playing with the colors and the design. I struggled with the sentiment because I really wanted to include sweet 16, but finally realized I have my digital studio, so I used the regal rose and script font to get an exact match on the sentiment. I don't hardly use MDS for card making, mostly I use it to make photo albums and now I've discovered how easy it is to customize my sentiments for cards like this.

Anyway, check out Debbie's original. Her card is really something special and I love her idea of having he ribbon come up and around the big circle center.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Today's post is for the sweet sunday sketch challenge from Karen Giron's blog. I really loved the layout here and had trouble deciding what to do. My first thought was to do easter eggs, but I had been working with Cameo Coral this weekend and decided to stick with the flower theme. This card blends some of Stampin up's newer colors with some favorite oldies. I also dug out some of my retired sets, but I know Stampin up offers very similar stamps for both the retired ones I used here.

I realized today that Cameo Coral works really nicely with Dusty Durango. The coral really softens up the durango and adds a really nice contrast for the two step rose stamp. Thanks for looking. Leave me a comment if you have time!

Today I am happy to have a fresh start to a new week. Last week was exhausting. My son and his friends had try-outs for 16 and under AAU basketball and it was just crazy. It was a mess all around. One of the boys heard that there was a great program, but it was 45 minutes away. His older brother played for a team there and to listen to the boys talk, it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. In reality, it was a poorly managed program with what appeared to be mediocre coaching. But, everyone (parents included) bought the hype and we all drove 45 minutes each way on Mon/Tues and Wed to have to boys try out. Providence intervened and the boys were never even asked to play on the team, but openings came up at the local team at the last minute. So Thursday, my son will go 5 minutes down the road to play with a local team for 1/2 the money of the other program. But last week was high drama, high hopes and lots of mis-communication and hurt feelings all around. So, I am glad to have a new week starting and last week behind us.

For today's post, I made a mothers day card (part of our cards for soldiers packet) based on a sketch challenge. I typically don't make cards with several layers, but this one was fun, especially since I used a bunch of solid colors.

Don't you love the purple flowers on this stamp? When I was down in RI earlier this month, the stamp store was having a club class. The ladies were all using this stamp set for a card they made. I fell in love and this cutie pie stamp found it's way in my basket to come home. I'm so glad I got it. I think it is so pretty and fun for spring and summer cards. What do you think?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Today's post is a simple Mothers Day card. I had two friends come over today to make cards to soldiers. They need mothers day cards at the end of the month to allow time for them to send the blank cards to the soldiers overseas and then the soldiers to send them to their loved ones. My daughter was home from college also, so she and her friend Marseilla made them also. We made 4 designs. This design came from a sketch challenge and it was one of the groups favorites. It's so simple, but elegant.

Monday, March 8, 2010

This is a card I made using my denami stamp set bunnies in a row. What a versatile stamp this is. I love the bunnies in a row, but I also love using individual bunnies by cutting them out. I also had fun using the stampin up color combination of chocolate chip and pretty in pink. These colors are so good together. My friend Karen gave me some felt embelleshments and surprising even myself, I used them on a card instead of hoarding them. I have been reading blogs that tell about how to use the big shot to make our own felt accessories, so I guess I'm feeling optimistic that I'll have success with that so I can use the felt pieces I have now. Do you horde your supplies too? It's a terrible thing. I guess it's like saving the good china for special occasions or the nice nightie for our anniversary. Well, these days I have no nice nighties, so that's not applicable, but you get the point. How many of us on our death bed are going to say 'thank goodness we didn't use the china every day and wear it out!'

So, today, I will live for the moment and use my embellishments. Heck, I may even use my rub-ons!!!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Good morning. What a treat. The sun is shining. What a difference the sun makes in my attitude. I'm looking forward to seeing friends at church and hearing the word of God, then home for a simple lunch and if the weather holds, a long walk with the dogs. I have housework to do, but somehow since the sun is shining it just seems more appropriate to get outside and enjoy it. The floors can be cleaned another day, and the laundry etc....

Today's post is from a super cute new stamp I got yesterday. I have a project I'm working on that I can't find the right materials for. I'm looking to design a thank you card for our church's step into Africa initiative. I'm looking for non-animal Africa materials and am having a hard time finding stuff. What I really want is some children, but most of the stamp sets with children are very American/European looking. So I keep stopping into stamp stores when I'm out and about hoping to find something. Yesterday I was down in Rhode Island so I stopped into a stamp store Bella Art. Very nice store. Very nice people. I'd never been, but was hoping they might have some Africa stuff. They didn't, but they had a lot of really cute spring things. So, of course, I walked out of the store with a few new spring things.

This stamp is from 'my favorite things.' Isn't she just the cutest thing? Hope you all have a nice relaxing Sunday. Thanks for stopping by and looking!

How to do paper piecing. If you've never done this before, here's how. it super easy. Stamp your image on both your designer paper and your white card stock. Cut out all the places where the dress is showing on your image. for this one, I had 6 different cut outs. One for the main dress. Two for the dress under the arms, 1 for the dress above the basket and 2 for the shoes. Once it's cut, glue the designer paper images onto the white card stock image. Be sure to color in the image first before you glue the paper pieces on.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Happy Friday everyone. This week seemed especially exhausting and I'm glad to have a few days where I don't have to get up with the alarm. This morning I was encouraged by a sure sign of spring. While my neighbor and I were walking our dogs at 7:00am, we walked by a small tree and I noticed little buds on the trees. Very encouraging, even though I had my down jacket on and she had her gloves and hat! Spring is coming.

Today's challenge from Lisa is to use GREEN and neutrals. I decided to work with Good Neighbor from Stampin up sale a bration. Originally I was working with 3 trees but decided I liked the 5 trees on the smaller card. I used PTI's spring moss paper, ink and poly twill ribbon. The neutral is kraft. The sentiment is teeny tiny wishes. This is a great stamp set and I highly recommend for both new stampers and experienced ones also. It is so versatile for any occasion and I love the fact that all the stamps are small and typically can go inside the word window punch or as a minor accent on a card. It's hard to see but the trees are all clear embossed and so is the sentiment 'thinking of you.' Thanks for looking. Enjoy

Monday, March 1, 2010

Happy Monday everyone and happy new month. I was very happy to get to work this morning and turn over my calendar (hand stamped by my cousin as a christmas gift.) As much as I dislike March, it must be endured to get to April and April is one of my favorite months. Partly because my # 1 daughter was born in April but partly because the newness of spring in New England is so captivating. Green grass, green buds and yellow daffodils will fill the wooded landscape in just a few short weeks. I am very ready!!!

I spotted this 2 Sketches 4 you challenge and was inspired to create a card today. I won't have any time for card making for a few days - Esther Bible Study on Tuesday, District Basketball game Wednesday, church friends over Thursday and then my Mom visits for the weekend arriving Friday. So, since I need a thank you card to go out, I decided to make it today.

I am loving blue and I'm loving birds right now so I decided to work with my Asian Artistry set from Stampin up and some of my new Amuse turquoise papers. The bird is colored with copics and then penned in with versamark to add irridescent ice as an embossed layer. She is really beautiful in person. I hope you get a flavor of her dimension in the photo. Thanks for stopping by tonight. Enjoy!